KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday nosedived on panic selling and closed in deep red with heavy losses due to investor concerns over global equity sell-off, higher inflation and slump in PKR.

BRIndex100 decreased by 92.12 points or 2.02 percent to close at 4,471.04 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,597.53 points and intraday low of 4,450.28 points. Volumes stood at 289.620 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 905.56 points or 4.38 percent to close at 19,751.93 points with a turnover of 184.329 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index plunged by 661.30 points or 1.51 percent to close at 43,221.78 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 354.964 million shares as compared to 404.913 million shares traded Tuesday.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $3.792 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 104 billion to Rs 7.582 trillion. Out of total 543 active scrips, 436 closed in negative and only 86 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 36.758 million shares however declined by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 5.16 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 2.06, down Rs 0.15 with 28.869 million shares. Mithchells Fruit and K.S.B. Pumps were the top gainers increasing by Rs 11.68 and Rs 8.30 respectively to close at Rs 357.41 and Rs 217.30 while Rafhan Maize and Colgate Palmolive were the top loser declining by Rs 174.00 and Rs 79.31 respectively to close at Rs 10725.00 and Rs 2424.69.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 107.79 points or 1.28 percent to close at 8,297.12 points with total turnover of 2.662 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 167.43 points or 3.1 percent to close at 5,237.01 points with 11.449 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 44.20 points or 0.46 percent to close at 9,482.93 points with 53.430 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 23.98 points or 0.45 percent to close at 5,362.71 points with 6.266 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,671.03 points, down 57.67 points or 1.55 percent with 44.842 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 236.20 points or 5.47 percent to close at 4,083.30 points with 91.740 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks fell across the board on investor concerns for global equity sell off, higher inflation amid slump in the rupee.

He said uncertainty over outcome of ongoing Pak/IMF talks under EFF and economic uncertainty amid surging trade deficit, bond yields played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021